Officer involved in pedestrian fatality in Midland cleared by Ontario’s police watchdog

Ontario’s police watchdog says it has cleared a provincial police officer after a collision killed a pedestrian in late September.

Joseph Martino, the director of the Special Investigations Unit, says that although the officer drove her cruiser dangerously, it was not at a criminal level.

A 35-year-old man and his friend were walking through an intersection in Midland, Ont., just after midnight when the man was struck by an Ontario Provincial Police SUV.

The SIU says that the man had been walking diagonally through the intersection and that the officer had entered the intersection on a green light.

It says that despite life-saving efforts by the officer, other police officers and paramedics, the man died at the scene.

Martino says the officer’s speed in bad weather and poor lighting was dangerous but not criminal.